Chapter 9 - The Magic Tower

The Tower was here before the founding of the city. It was rediscovered 800 years ago, in the resettlement efforts after the warring states period. Knowing it would be dangerous to everyone if left unchecked, it was your great grandfather, Thallen Waesdove, that entered. When entered, the System Lair Notice gave the name "Archwizard's Tower of Velia," hence the name of our city, Velia.

 - A portion of Miss Rowvyre's lecture on history to Aila and Miles.

Miles woke up with a great soreness. Like he had just gone through an intensive workout that covered his whole body. He looked around, and found that he was back home in his room. He didn’t remember ever arriving back in the city, and had likely passed out somewhere along the way. When he noticed light coming through the window, Miles groaned. He had missed his morning training with Dad. 

Sighing, he rolled out of bed to get ready for the day. Entering the bathroom, he saw that the bath was already filled and steaming. His Mom had likely prepped it for him. Using the tongs, he fished out the heating stone. As soon as he placed it back into its dish, the stone’s  glow started fading as it began to cool down. After a nice hot bath, and some clean clothes, he felt much better. He still had low Stamina, but he was able to think much more clearly.

He entered the kitchen, his parents were already eating breakfast. His mom greeted him,  “Good morning, Miles! Come eat quick, you’re almost late!”

“Good morning, Mom, Dad,” He sat down by his mom, “I’m sorry I slept in so late. Actually, what happened?”

“You fell asleep on the way back, and then slept for the rest of the day and through the night. The combination of low Stamina and the mental exhaustion from the fighting took a toll on you.” His dad said. “Don’t worry about missing your morning practice. I expected this to happen and you deserved a break anyway.”

His mom gave him a cup. “Here, it's a quick Stamina potion. It won’t refill the entire pool, but it's enough to get you back up and going. You’re going to be taking it easy in your training for the next week or two, so no using your active skill.”

He wanted to protest, but his dad jumped in. “So, how did you feel your first hunting trip went? If I’m right, you still need to distribute your new stat points. But you should use this experience to think about how you did, and what sort of fighting style you want to develop.”

He thought about all the different fights that he had gone through. In most cases, his Thrust was already enough to kill most of the monsters in one hit, but that relied on actually getting a clean hit. He was reminded of the first fight, when he was nearly hit with an arrow. Then the fight with the Tier 1 goblin, which was faster and stronger than him. The only reason he was able to win on his own was because of his skills and techniques. He thought about when he was hit and bruised. It had really hurt, so he thought about focusing on his constitution, but then he’d rather not get hit in the first place. 

“I think I would like to focus on my Alacrity. In all of the fights I wished I was a little bit faster. It would help me avoid getting hit, and apply my skills better,” he finally said.

His dad nodded. “An Alacrity focused build isn’t bad. As with any build, there are some down sides that you need to be aware of. For one, with an Alacrity focused build the lowest stat will be your Constitution. You’ll be able to avoid a lot of hits, but once you are hit, it will hurt a lot worse. You also won’t be able to hit as hard as other front liners. That’s not necessarily bad though, as you can hit a lot faster.” He paused, and hummed thoughtfully. “With an Alacrity build, you definitely need Riposte. Then I’ll teach you some moves that aid that. Like Quick Strike, and Double Strike.”

Seeing that his dad didn’t point out anything wrong with his line of thinking, he opened his status page to distribute his points. He had gained 7 levels yesterday, so he had 21 points to spend. Having decided to focus on Alacrity for speed, he started putting in the points. Keeping the 2:1 ratio for all the stats, he eventually put 12 into ALA, 6 into ACU, and 3 into INT. He didn’t have to worry about putting any into WIL, because he was still ahead of the ratio with that one. Now his stats were:

Stats:

Strength: 57

Intelligence: 14

Constitution: 46

Willpower: 8

Alacrity: 60

Acuity: 30

Pending Stat Points: 0

Having put in his points, he realized something. Eventually, his Mana pool was going to be larger than his Stamina. He frowned, concerned. He liked using his Stamina, it felt good using it. Should he split his focus to both CON and ALA? That would keep his Stamina pool larger, and it would let him be quicker. He asked his dad. “Hey Dad, I just realized that if I focus on Alacrity, then I’ll only be growing my Mana Pool. Could I focus on both CON and ALA?”

His dad nodded again. “That’s perfectly reasonable. So long as you’re keeping the rest of your stats in line, then there’s not really a wrong way to develop your stats. There’s always going to be some strengths and weaknesses to any sort of build. If you’re worried about using Stamina or Mana, the CON/ALA build will keep you focused on Stamina, but with a healthy bit of Mana to use as well."

With the talk of Mana, Miles was reminded of his Mom's spells yesterday. He turned to his mom. “You we're so awesome yesterday! Would it be possible for me to learn some spells too?. Can I?”

She smiled “Of course! I’ve been saying all along that I would help you learn magic. How about I take you to the magic tower this afternoon? I can give you a tour of the facilities and start your Mana Sense training. It’s the first step in learning magic, after all. Now finish eating, we have to go!”

~~~

“Miles! You’re back!” Aila ran over and gave him a hug. Then she pulled back, suddenly pouting. “It’s not fair that you can already go off fighting monsters. Why can you go hunting when I have to stay and take more classes?”

Miles grinned at her. “Because I’m amazing! I’ve already gained 7 whole levels, just yesterday!”

“What!” Aila wailed. “Why does magic have to be so slow to learn? I want to fight too!”

Mile recalled his mom blowing everything up with her fire magic. It was pretty powerful. “Don’t worry too much about it, Aila. Magic is crazy powerful. My Mom was exploding everything up! She blew up an entire goblin camp! There was like, a hundred goblins there! Soon you’ll be able to do that too!”

“Woah!” Aila marveled at the thought of one day casting magic like that. “I have started to learn actual spells now. While you were hunting, I started training to cast Mana Bolt, and Lightning Bolt. Oh! I got a new tutor as well, for music! Lady Arren. She’s amazing. She can cast magic through her music! Someday, I want to be able to do that too!”

“Music, huh?” Miles had gone to some plays with his mom and dad, but they didn’t often go to any musician’s recital or debut. It didn’t really sound like the funnest thing, but the idea of magic music and seeing Aila so excited about it made him curious about it.

Miss Rowvyre arrived, and it was time to start their classes. 

~~~

It was in the afternoon, and his mom found them in the outer gardens. Aila was showing him some of the music that she was learning. 

“There you are, Miles! Hello, Aila. I see you’ve started learning how to play! That was well done.”

Aila beamed at the praise. “Thank you, Miss Reamore. That was the only tune I know right now though. But one day I'll be able to play it like Lady Arren!”

“That will take a lot of dedicated practice, but I’m sure that you’ll be able to. You’ve always been one to try your hardest.” His mom turned towards him. “Miles, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I’m ready! I’ll see you later, Aila.” Miles said.

Aila perked up. “Wait! Where are you guys going? So soon? What about the resistance training?” She had gotten used to Miles being there, and was suddenly nervous about doing it alone again. Well, her Mother was there, but it wasn’t the same.

Miles’s Mom replied. “Don’t worry, Aila. Your parents and I discussed the resistance training together. With your music practice and magic training, we’ve all decided to reduce it done to every other day. Today there won’t be any resistance training. Miles here wanted to learn some magic as well, so I’m taking him to the magic tower.”

“The magic tower! Can I come too? Please?”

His mom considered it. “If Lady Waesdove is ok with it, I don’t mind.”

“Ok! I’ll go ask!” Aila ran off towards the manor.

A couple minutes later, Aila came running back with a large grin on her face. “She said that I can go!”

~~~

Walking through the city was always fun. They didn’t have many opportunities to go out, as both Miles and Aila were young and had to stay under their parents’ or another guardian’s supervision. Now that they were eight years old, and having started their more formal training, supposedly they were going to start being trusted with a bit more leeway. This made Miles both excited and nervous. He had never been on his own outside of his own home, or within the walls of the Wardrobe estate.

Miles had been to the Magic Tower once or twice before, to bring lunch to his mom, but he had never actually taken a tour of the place, only going straight to her office, and back out. He had also never come from Aila’s home, so they were taking a new route through the city that he had never seen before. The combination made Miles really excited, and he was jumping up and down as they walked. Though he had to be careful, because there were a lot of people walking the streets like they were. A large crowd of people going about their business or shopping.

He excitedly looked around at everything, taking in these new places in the city. This area of the city seemed to have a lot of businesses and luxury places. There were some signs that read as a magic item shop, a potions shop, high end clothing stores with display windows, and restaurants. At the end of the street were several massive buildings, the city center.

Entering the city center, Miles could see three large buildings. One of them towered over the rest, at a full 10 stories tall. The Magic Tower. It was made of a reddish gray type of stone that Miles didn’t recognize. From the outside, it didn’t appear to have any windows and looked like a featureless monolith. But from the brief visits he had before, Miles knew that from the inside it had large expansive windows that let in lots of natural light. The only decoration the tower had naturally was the single set of doors that served as its entrance, and the wide set of stairs that went up to it. On both sides of the stairs, and in the center of the plaza that was at the entrance, statues were added in. The statues on the sides were of past heroes of the Empire, the one in plaza was of the current emperor.

Miles didn’t know too much about the current emperor, only that his name was Marcellus Caius Sudrenus IV, and that he was nearing the end of Tier 4. Tier 4! Miles nearly couldn’t imagine someone being that powerful. Though apparently the ancient emperors were said to be Tier 6 or 7. The First Emperor Himself was said to be Tier 8! Well, He did become a God, after all. Miles thought to himself.

Miles wasn’t the only one marveling at the tower. Aila was wide eyed, staring up towards the top of the tower. She was probably trying to guess just how tall the thing was. “Woah! It’s so magical! How is it sucking up so much mana?”  She asked, still staring. “It’s so beautiful!”

His mom laughed to herself. “Yes, it’s very beautiful. We’re not too sure on how exactly it was built, but every square inch of the tower was fully enchanted. All the other known Wizard Towers are the same. Fully enchanted, and indestructible so far as we can tell. It draws in ambient mana to power all of the enchantments and mana circles within.

There were many people in robes coming in and out of the tower, some hauling boxes, others a mound of scrolls. These were probably the mages of the tower. Those without robes looked to be regular citizens. He didn’t know what they would be doing at the tower, but there were a lot of them.

“Okay, Miles, Aila.” His mom said as they walked up the steps. “Stay close to me. As we look around. No running off.”

They entered into the tower. Inside was a large foyer, with many sitting areas, and hearths. At the back were receptionists, at the sides were large hallways. If the outside of the tower didn't display enough wealth and power, this lobby sure did. Everything was finely crafted, gilded, and enchanted, including the couches.

His mom took them through the many hallways and floors with a tour of the facilities that are offered in the tower. She also explained some of the duties that she and other mages perform. They passed many lecture halls where they teach advanced magic theory to the adults, and smaller classrooms where they teach kids their own age about magic, the future mages of the city. They passed some special training rooms, enchanted with mana concentration circles to help train Mana Sense. His mom said that these rooms would be rented out to the public. They passed workshops and laboratories where mages would experiment and try to discover new enchantments, rituals, and spellcrafts. They passed a library where they archived many various things about monsters and magical plants, and skills and classes and a whole bunch of other things. One thing that Miles noticed was that, despite the large amount of walking and the amount of stairs they climbed in the tower, they never got exhausted from it all. Definitely something to do with the enchantments on the floors of the tower.

Miles found everything amazing, to be sure, but Aila was downright gushing over everything. Though she did note that the Mana Sense training rooms were very similar to the training room in her own home.

Eventually they made their way to his mom's personal office and workshop that was on the fifth floor. Her office was tidy, but her workspace was clustered with contraptions heaped on the countertops. “Want to see what I’ve been working on?” She asked. Aila responded before he could.

“Yes!” Aila jumped excitedly and followed his mom over to one corner in the workshop. She pulled over a metal box with a slot at the top.

“I call this a toaster! I’ve enchanted it so that we could toast a slice of bread easily instead of in an oven. You cut a slice of bread and put it in this slot here. With how the enchantments are set up, it will begin to heat up immediately. Though the current problem is that it doesn’t stop so it's hard to get the toast back out. Hopefully, I can finish this within the month and we can begin selling it.”

They went back down to where the training rooms were, and they began some meditative training. Aila refrained from meditating as well, citing some lightning training with her own mom. Instead, she chose to puff little clouds of mana at him while he was meditating. 

“From now on, Miles, we’ll be coming here every other day for your mana sense training.”